The Decline of Quiznos...What Happened?

They need a new tag line. Something catchy like, "Quiznos. 100% flavor. 0% Jared."

Well, it's all because that guy who spins the sign around too fast. I still don't know which way the Quiznos is...

In 2004 there was a Quiznos in North Seattle that the franchise owners abandoned without warning the staff. The crew continued to run the shop by driving to other locations for bread, and using the daily earnings to buy meat, veggies and to pay employees. They would buy cases of Vanilla Coke (making it the only beverage) because it was cheap and being phased out. They did this for a month before corporate offices stepped in after being shamed by local media.

Mismanagement out the waazoo is the only thing that makes sense if you’ve ever had one of their subs. It wasn’t just the toasting - their sandwich types were creative, fresh, and just freaking delicious. It’s a shame when a legit great product is run into the ground through CEO greed and incompetence.

I’m glad to hear it was due to poor management. I had thought that America just preferred Subway over Quiznos. That idea bothered me.

I’m a former Quiznos franchise owner and everything you said in this video is accurate. We were burdened with excessive fees, excessive food costs, constant pressure to upgrade the decor and unreasonable staffing expectations that drove our payroll thru the roof. I still love the food but the company was greedy and made enemies of their franchise owners.

The fact that so many people love their food, and miss it a lot, really highlights how hard they failed

I miss the local Quiznos. Their subs, being toasted, were certainly better than Subway's. And they had a chili-style soup at one time that was absolutely superb.

I was a manager of a location in Lakewood, CO. My store was a franchisee training store and yes the people who bought franchises had no clue what they were doing, most of them had never even been in the food industry before. Fun fact: The reason subway got ovens was because coca-cola came in and told them if they switch from Pepsi to coke they’d put ovens in all their locations. Undercutting Quiznos like that pissed off the brand and that’s why you see Pepsi products, when before 2004 Quiznos had coke products.

I literally thought that Quiznos didn't exist anymore

He forgot to mention the 5 Dollar footlong at Subway which was a big deal during the recession. This lead to Quiznos trying to compete with more affordable offerings at a cost of quality

As I recall, Quiznos toasted their subs by running them on a rotating belt of sorts thru a type of broiler, not in an oven. They were quite good that way, I thought. Crisped the bread just right.

I actually miss the hell out of Quiznos.

As a former franchisee, I can attest to the fact that we closed the store simply due to the high food cost. Buying from the required food vendor was 2K to 3K a week on sales of 10K. After paying rent, 11% total in two different franchise fees, utilities and labor costs, we were losing money week after week. Eventually, it no longer makes sense to keep bailing out a sinking ship and it is time to save yourself.

I was sad when my local quiznos closed in STL. The hot sandwiches were delicious and the owner was sweet and classy. It became obvious she was exhausted and trying to control costs because (as far as i know) she was the only employee. Who would think a business could fail with fantastic customer service and a product everyone loves? I miss the chicken carbonara and black angus sandwiches!

I remember back in 2000 a Quiznos opened up in my hometown and I started getting my lunchbreak sandwiches there. They were quite good, and I really enjoyed the food. However, less than half a year after it opened the shop closed and seemingly vanished. I think this video has done a great job explaining why that probably happened.

As a customer I think 2 thing kept you out of the restaurant: 1. High prices 2. Every other sub place started offering toasted subs.

The one word that best describes what caused Quiznos' downfall is greed. They had a quality product and allowed it to self-destruct.

There was definitely a consistency problem across franchisees. There were 4 Quiznos locations near my hometown, one of them was really good: quality sandwiches, clean decor, well staffed; the other three, not so much. One was so gross looking that I walked out without ordering and never went back. Sadly, the one good Quiznos closed circa 2007, as the owner couldn't afford to keep it running. It was going to be reopened under new ownership, but the recession killed that before it could happen. It's such a shame that the business self-destructed. Their sandwiches were far and above all of the other chain sandwich shops.

I have to correct one point. The main thing Quiznos had over Subway wasn't the toasting, it was having food that tasted good. Wish Subway would have copied this part as well.